Paulie's Blog: Some R&R before heading to Utah

This past week, I was able to spend some time at the Jersey Shore with my family, meaning there was tons of fun, laughter, competition, and even a little singing. I departed the vacation a bit early, though, as I headed to Salt Lake City for our 10th Camping World West race of the season. After starting in the rear, we finished second!

Each year, about 30 members of my mother's family all go to the Jersey Shore together for a week. In addition to my two sisters, I have 11 cousins. Between aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins, boyfriends, girlfriends, husbands, and wives, there were 29 of us clustered together on the beach at one point.

Paulie gets dirty during practice and changes the shocks.

I really enjoy being down there, as we are quite the unique group -- including a PhD candidate who's doing cancer research, an ER nurse, a computer programmer, and a whole bunch more. We do share some great common threads, though, including our faith and our values. Oh, and one more thing: we are all extremely competitive.

As I'm sure you can imagine, beach volleyball was intense, as was horseshoes. We got to the point of having to keep the sand groomed near the boundary lines so that we could clearly tell, by the imprint the ball left in the sand, whether a hit was in or out of bounds. The team I was on? Undefeated. 'Nuff said.

Away from the beach, we spent time together having dinner, going on bike rides, getting knocked around on roller coasters, and playing board games (yes, the competition there is just as intense). My Uncle Tom is an amazing musician and he brings his guitar along each year. We sit outside well into the night singing old Beatles, Eagles, Don McLean, Rolling Stones, and Van Morrison songs. It's always a blast!

I had to depart early, as we raced at Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele (outside Salt Lake City), Utah, a three-mile road course. I arrived in Miller on Thursday evening, just in time for dinner with the guys.

We were told that the bar near our hotel had good food, so we tried to check that out. I ruined that idea, though, as they said a 19-year-old couldn't even walk in the door. We ended up settling for pizza. As always, it was a great evening with the guys with a lot of laughter. (Continued)